WORCESTER — A traveling exhibit about the long and often overlooked history of Arab Americans in Massachusetts opens Saturday, Sept. 26, at the Museum of Worcester, the last stop on a tour that began in Boston nearly a year ago.

"Arab Massachusetts: Building Community in the Commonwealth" was developed by the Arab American National Museum (AANM) in Dearborn, Michigan. It will be on view in the museum's Booth Gallery through Feb. 14, 2027, according to the AANM and the Museum of Worcester.

The Museum of Worcester says it is "proud to be the final stop for this important exhibition." Its exhibit page says the show features "both historic and contemporary stories from Worcester, Boston, Quincy, and Lawrence," dating from the late 19th century to the present.

Stories kept in families, now shared

The AANM describes the project as drawing on "meticulous archival research" and on input from Arab Americans living in Massachusetts. The museum says these stories had, until now, "remained relegated to individual family histories or the confines of institutional records."

According to the AANM, the exhibit and its programming look at the tension between assimilation and the push to keep one's culture. They also look at how deindustrialization in Massachusetts affected urban Arab American communities. And they celebrate the ways Arab Americans "have built and found strength in cross-cultural communities throughout time." The AANM says the project uses narratives, donated objects and community history workshops.

"In a time of rising xenophobia and nativism in this country, it is more urgent than ever to preserve these stories," the AANM writes on its exhibit page.

The exhibit draws in part on research by the Boston Little Syria Project, according to that project's website. The project links the early history of the Syrian-Lebanese community to the longer history of Arabs in the Commonwealth. Pao Arts Center, which hosted the Boston opening, notes that immigrants from Syria and Lebanon began settling around Boston's Chinatown in the 1880s. On Hudson Street, where the center now stands, Arab and Chinese immigrants lived side by side.

WBUR reported when the exhibit opened in Boston that it tells the stories of communities in Boston, Quincy, Worcester and Lawrence, "where Muslim and Christian Arab communities found work in the shipyards and mills." At the Boston stop, Flipside News reported, the objects on display included a Chinese vase given to an Arab family as a wedding gift.

A year on the road

The exhibit opened at Pao Arts Center in Boston on Nov. 19, 2025, and stayed through Feb. 13, 2026. According to the Boston Little Syria Project, it then went to the Quincy Historical Society (March 16 to May 29, 2026) and Lawrence Heritage State Park (Aug. 1 to Sept. 12, 2026) before coming to Worcester.

More programming may follow. The Telegram & Gazette reported in August that the College of the Holy Cross's Prior Center has been in talks with the Museum of Worcester about a possible collaboration linked to the exhibit. The Prior Center is presenting the Jazal Choir's "Harmony of Nations: Songs from Around the Arab World" on Nov. 13.

The AANM lists the exhibition's sponsors as Dr. John I. Makhoul (patron), Jeff Boshar (steward), and Cedar's Foods, The SmithGroup, and Drs. Ghaleb and Rima Daouk (ambassadors).

If you go

The Museum of Worcester is at 30 Elm St., Worcester. Its website lists museum hours as Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., with hours until 8:30 p.m. every fourth Thursday. Parking is in the museum's lot behind the building, entered from Chestnut Street. The main entrance is on Elm Street.

General admission to the museum is $10, or $15 for the museum plus Salisbury Mansion. Visitors 18 and under and museum members get in free. Through the Card to Culture program, adults with an EBT, WIC or ConnectorCare card can buy general admission tickets for $2 each by asking for the discount at check-in.

Sources

Illustration only; it does not show real people or places.